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Liberty and Power

  • Oct 3, 2006

    Japanese Racism: Another Sign of the Times

    by Liberty and Power

    Racism has never been absent from Japan, but in the last few years it has become especially evident at Japanese resorts known as"onsens." Apparently the notion of mixing Japanese and non-Japanese bodies in the same water is deeply disturbing. The sign above, typical of many, warns non-Japanese to keep their polluting bodies to themselves and out of all-Japan

  • Oct 3, 2006

    Common Sense about Foley's Follies

    by Liberty and Power

    Gary Leupp writes about the activities of Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who has just resigned. Republican hypocrisy. Certainly. But Leupp offers a more thoughtful and nuanced view of the affair than most commentators. The prevailing response to the affair is surely a good example of what the sociologist Stanley Cohen called
  • Oct 3, 2006

    Don't Confuse Me With the Facts

    by Liberty and Power

    Andrew J. Coulson, the director of the Cato Institutes's Center for Educational Freedom, wrote a fine book, Market Education: The Untold Story. In it, he presents a careful fact-based case arguing for the superiority of private over governmental schools. In the tradition of Karl Popper, he offers a thesis that is"falsifiable" e.g. it is subject to testing and thus can, at least in the
  • Oct 2, 2006

    Is America Living beyond Its Means?

    by Liberty and Power

    Larry Elliott argues that America is living beyond its means. For many years I have been concerned about the underlying strength of the U.S. economy and the prospects for the dollar and asset markets. You don't have to agree with Lou Dobbs to be skeptical of those who write so enthusiastically about the American economy. Neither do you have to believe protectionism is the answer. Whether or not you believe that Amer
  • Sep 27, 2006

    Invective as Perhaps Only the Brits Can Do It

    by Liberty and Power

    The Guardian carries an amusing account of the debate between George Galloway, the British MP, and Christopher Hitchens, the dual national journalist, on the Iraq War at Baruch College, New York City. It seems as if it generated some entertainment, if little enlightenment on the issues.

    “In a debate that drew as much from the culture of the playground as the traditions of parliament, no hyperbolic stone was l
  • Sep 26, 2006

    Bush, Ever the True Believer, Describes Iraq as "Just a Comma"

    by Liberty and Power

    And they call antiwar libertarians starry-eyed ideologues? Even at their most delusional, they can't match statements like these.

    Despite daily reports of slaughter, torture, Islamic oppression, and ethnic strife from Iraq, our true believer president proves that he will not deviate in the slightest from his 2003 talking points.

    In an interview that ran on Sunday, he told the following to Wolf B

  • Sep 25, 2006

    The Dead Walk Again

    by Liberty and Power

    Tolkien’s son is completing an unfinished Tolkien Middle-Earth novel!

    On a note of lesser cosmic significance, I’ve posted some more anarchist classics by Benjamin Tucker and Voltairine de Cleyre.
  • Sep 25, 2006

    Banned Books Week

    by Liberty and Power

    According to the American Library Association, September 23-30 is Banned Books Week.

    Here's the ALA's list of the top 10 most challenged books of this century so far:

    The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
    The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
    The Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
    Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
    I Know Why the Caged Bi
  • Sep 24, 2006

    Historians Against the War Welcomes Libertarians

    by Liberty and Power

    David Montgomery a founder and leading member of Historians Against the War, has given libertarian and conservative critics of the Iraq War an excellent reason to support the efforts of that organization. His response to a survey of the membership stated the following (my emphasis in bold):

    I remain cautious, however, about taking organizational stands on some of the other issues mentioned as pos
  • Sep 24, 2006

    The Decline and Fall of American Conservatism

    by Liberty and Power

    My old friend, historian C. Bradley Thompson, recently appointed to a plum position at Clemson University, has a fascinating piece in the current issue of The Objective Standard on the Bush admininstration's unashamed embrace of big government conservatism.

    This isn't just a recap of other articles on this topic. Thompson covers new ground.

    Thompson gathers together